By Ben Potter
In my prior Byline article, I wrote about a piece of writing advice that inspired me (a “Writers on Writing” piece by the incomparable Elmore Leonard). I hope you found it helpful – I certainly enjoyed revisiting a personal favorite.
It also got me thinking … was there anything else gathering dust on my bookshelf that was worth a second look?
As a matter of fact, there was. I fondly remembered reading “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott in a writing class at the University of Missouri two decades ago. A receipt tucked between pages 80 and 81 confirmed I hadn’t cracked open this book since June of 2001. (If you ever want to feel old, reminisce about gas prices – the receipt confirmed I’d ponied up $1.119 per gallon.)
Lamott’s book aims to demystify the often mystic process of writing. A lot of veteran writers probably struggle explaining their process. How do you construct a 2,500-word cover story? You just interview a handful of sources and write the thing.
Lamott understands that beginning and veteran writers alike can benefit from thinking more about the step-by-step processes involved with story creation. As she explains in “Bird by Bird”:
Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'”
One thing that impresses me about Lamott is her overwhelming kindness. Let’s face it – writing can be stressful. Maybe you’re worried about a looming deadline. Maybe an interview didn’t go as planned. Maybe you weren’t able to connect with a much-needed source entirely. We’ve all had days like that.
As she writes:
“Your day’s work might turn out to have been a mess. So what? Vonnegut said, “When I write, I feel like an armless legless man with a crayon in his mouth.” So go ahead and make big scrawls and mistakes. Use up lots of paper. Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend. What people somehow (inadvertently, I’m sure) forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here – and, by extension, what we’re supposed to be writing.”
The book was published in 1994, and at the time, Lamott was highly invested in using a sea of index cards that allowed her to catalog, sort and shuffle her thoughts on any number of topics. I wondered casually if she still does this in 2022. I will say re-reading this chapter inspired me to download a notes app on my smartphone last weekend, and I have been intermittently tinkering with it since then.
As with Leonard, Lamott’s book is largely targeted at fiction writers, but I think our industry could find plenty of helpful advice within its pages. I definitely recommend giving it a skim if you haven’t come across it already.
Is there a writer (fiction or nonfiction) who is a special inspiration to you? Let’s keep sharing good advice with one another – send your thoughts to [email protected].
Ben Potter is the Editor of the ACN ByLine in Brief Newsletter and a Senior Editor with Farm Futures magazine. He has more than 20 years of experience as a public relations professional and journalist in the agriculture industry.